Think Italian sculpture and you are almost certain to visualize magnificent forms carved in white marble - works like Michelangelo's David.

Italy has a long history of sculpture which dates back to ancient Roman times before reaching its zenith during the Renaissance period.

But by the late 19th century artists not just from Italy but from all over Europe had started to test new mediums and aesthetic meanings. And the trend continues today.

Sculpture art is getting rid of the conventional monumental and awesome look, replacing it with a more delicate feel utilizing much lighter and more portable materials. New technologies such as electronic and digital devices are also being used.

An Italian contemporary sculpture exhibition which recently opened at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall features works by 31 Italian artists, both established masters and emerging young talents.

Its title - "Subtle Energies of Matter" - underlines how these new materials and technologies have replaced traditional marble or bronze.

The exhibition is the second event conducted in China by exhibition organizer - the Garuzzo Institute for the Visual Arts (IGAV) - signaling a long-term commitment here.

Just over a year ago, IGAV presented the "Nature and Metamorphosis" exhibition in Shanghai and Beijing which received a rapturous reception from the public and critics.

It was offered as part of the Year of Italy in China 2006, a one-year program of events organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IGAV is a non-profit organization which promotes international exhibitions, cultural exchanges between different countries, debates, produces publications and works to promote the expression of visual arts by Italian artists.

Based in both Turin and London, it was incorporated as an association in 2005 and is financed by contributions from its members, the public and private sponsors. These people place their vast international experience at the service of contemporary Italian art.

Exhibition Curator Marisa Vescovo says in the present day the term "sculpture" no longer encompasses all of the modes of production adopted by today's artists.

"They are creating channels for other materials, constructing forms that can react to the movement of real and artificial light, enlarging environmental and imaginary spaces by including icons and sounds emitted by the mass media," says Vescovo.

As the exhibit illustrates, the heterogeneous nature of three-dimensional works of art produced in the 20th and 21st centuries touch on areas of great poignancy.

Viewers can find not only mixed media, but also hybrid genres that use different languages, like rocket-fueled escapes from all pre-defined patterns.

They are subject to social and existential influences that put together art, daily life and culture into an ongoing melange that knows no end.

The objective of all these artists is to highlight the extent to which the techniques and poetics of sculpture have been transformed since the dawn of the avant-garde.

These sculptors have developed a tendency to play with the lightness of a multiplicity of materials, which, while classically "heavy," also have the capacity to lose their substantiality and to be suspended in space.

The show will move on to the China National Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing from March 7 to April 1.

(Shanghai Daily January 30, 2008)